arts of japan final - keywords

zen/chan seon

meditation, the art of doing nothing

ZEN BUDDHISM

a special transmission outside the scriptures

not founded upon words and letters;

by pointing directly to one’s mind

it lets us see into one’s own true nature

and thus attain Buddhahood

1. enlightenment takes place within one’s mind

2. enlightenment cannot be taught or intellectually understood

3. the gateway to enlightenment is meditation

4. enlightenment is a sudden, all-absorbing experience that should be suddenly realized

apparition painting

“anti-painting painting”

• how to paint nothing? represent nothingness?

• contextualized with zen principles

• painting as a tool of self-discipline

nakahara nentenbo

1839-1925

• zen apparition painter

muqi fachang

enso

wabi/wabi sabi

• perfect imperfection in ceramics - celebration of the wabi and sabi values of there being beauty in aging and imperfection

• “art of artlessness”

• simplicity

• impermanence

• often seen in apparition painting, like nantembo’s

• wabi aesthetics feature; simplicity, negative space, imperfection

• raku “pleasure” wares

  • hideyoshi grants the sakaki family the exlusive priviledge of creating raku wares

  • hand-modeled

  • porous clay

  • low firing glaze

  • removed from kiln when hot

• accident + control = wabi

  • koetsu fw ts

daitoku-ji

karesansui

mokuan reien d.1345

“chinese-style” painting - kara-e

• simple like muromachi period painting heh

• muromachi period “chinese painting”

ink painting - sumi-e

vertical scroll - kakemono

muromachi period

1336-1573

• extent of japanese empire during muromachi period - just on the island

  • SHUGO: military governors overseeing provinces on behalf of the shogun, hereditary positions

ashikaga

ashikaga yoshimitsu

(1358-1409)

• shogunate/muromachi period

• ashikaga clan - minamoto

• shugunal headquarters relocated to kyoto

• course/aristocrastic taste + zen aesthetics

• collor of kara-e - chinese style painting

kinkakuji

is this the golden pavilion? i think it is - national treasure, combines zen and interior design architecture and stuff or whatever

• 1390s , rebuilt 1955-2003

• private residence of ashigaka toshimitsu, turned into a zen temple

• unique mixture of residential and religious architectural styles

• the private villa as a space for artistic production and social interaction

1. zen meditation and the arts

2. tea ceremony

3. painting

4. theatrical performances

5. flower arrangement

alcove - toko-no-ma

arts of display

• muromachi - karamono

• usage of “Special tea utensils” -meibutsu

karamono

soami d. 1525

• record of the art objects displayed

• curatorial adviser of the shogun

• precious objects imported from china OR made locally after chinese models

• ashikaga shoguns as collectors of karamono “chinese things”

• kara = chinese

painting with poetry - shigajiku

kano eitoku

1543-1590 - Kanō Eitoku was a Japanese painter who lived during the Azuchi–Momoyama period of Japanese history and one of the most prominent patriarchs of the Kanō school of Japanese painting

byobu - folding screen

• accordian style - divisions of the room

• two, four, six, eight-paneled screens

• wooden core lines with layers of rice paper and silk frame

• depicting famous sites - ogata korin eight-planked bridge

  • the creative life of a moveable format

  • spaciality when flat versus folded changed the feeling and existence in space and in the painting

  • korin’s piece from early 18th century, when folded, has new implications as the road looks winding

  • screens as illustionistic space

fusuma - sliding panel

sliding room divisions

• painted on, sometimes these painting remounted as handscrolls

biombo … silk partition? kicho?

• portable, multi-paneled partition of silk curtains hung on a pole

• spanish for byobu - screen

tagasode - whose sleeves?

azuchi castle

kano school

tea ceremony - chado - chanoyu

• different schools of tea ceremony

• seasonal differences

• relationship between host and guest

• after tea served, appreciation of antiques or tea utensils

tea ceremony and “japaneseness”

• kazuko makes this dumbahh book in 1906 called the book of tea which essentially appropriates japanese tea ritual and makes japan out to be this simple contained world in the global eye

special tea utensils - meibutsu

• used in alcove - arts of display

• produced in china and later in japan

• dark clay covered with iron-rich glaze that turns dark and speckled during firing

tearoom - chashitsu

• stand alone tea house in zen temples and aristocratic residences

kintsugi

• repairing cracks with gold

chashitsu

sen no rikyu

1522-1591

• humble origins, training in zen

• 1579: tea master and advisor od oda nobunaga

• 1582: tea master and confident of hideyoshi

• 1591: ritual suicide - ordered by hideyoshi

tai-an tea room

• small tea room where very limited amount of people can be inside at one time - max 2 or 3

• you have to enter by crawling, which humbles you as you enter the ceremony

• very humble and simple space

• beams and ceiling of untreated wood, walls of mud and reeds

• tea utensils

golden tea room

made under rule of toyotomi hideyoshi in 1585

• cypress wood, reeds, silk

• portable

• pure gold or gilded tea utensils

• old wabi aesthetics versus new culture of display

  • old wabi = tei’an tea room

raku ware

• raku “pleasure” wares

  • hideyoshi grants the sakaki family the exlusive priviledge of creating raku wares

  • hand-modeled

  • porous clay

  • low firing glaze

  • removed from kiln when hot

• accident + control = wabi

grand kitano tea ceremony

1587

• celebrating another victorious war

• hideyoshi organized a 10-day tea ceremony at the kitano shrine in kyoto

• 1,500 tea venues

• invited guests which included all segment of society and people abroad - anyone can pu to the cookout

• featured display of famous tea utensils in hideyoshi’s collection

meaning and implication

• the political nature of the tea ceremony

• appropriation of elite cultural captial

• democratization of tea ceremy - everyone invited

• theatricalization of power (cfr architecture and design

nanban/namban

• barbarians from the south

• portuguese ship arrived to nagasaki in 1543

• “nanban art” - stereotypical representations of europeans (portuguese, dutch) for domestic market

• luxury objects made of mother-of-pearl, lacquer or gold leaf

• made in japan for the european, asian, or american markets

nagasaki

bomb 1945

• commerce town for ships n shit

• dejima island: artificial walled island built in 1634 to accommodate portugese trders, dutch take over control

• big for trade, huge bay

• dejima

  • atrocious living conditions for merchants

school of nagasaki of giovanni nicolo

1560-1626

fumi-e

stepping on picture ?

• metal or wooden images of Jesus or the Virgin Mary that authorities of the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan used in the 17th century to identify and suppress Christians

sprinkled lacquer painting - maki-e

• wooden core

• covered with lacquer sprinkled with gold powder

• gold, metal, or mother-ofpearl elements embossed

• the famous mazarin chest was made of it - 1640

• marie antoinette was really into it and had a whole collection

arita/imari

• where kaolin, white clay for porcelain was harvested, biggest porcelain producers for trade

• top porcelain exporter in 17th and early 18th c

porcelain

• made from a white clay in Arita, fired at very high temperatures that causes “vitrification.”

  • glaze and body are combined, creating a continuous break if split in half

glaze

vitrification

• the process by which glaze and clay fuse together to make no border if were to be broken in half

underglaze/overglaze

underglaze - usually in blue for porcelain, fired in blue pigment that can withstand extreme tempuratues, while overglaze is fired in different colors after at a lower temperature

cornelis pronk

1691 - 1756

• famous designer, dutch

• voc asks him to design dinner set for the voc

• comes up with an orientalized design for dutch audience

• produced in china, becomes highly desired design, arita competes, becomes popular even amongst elites in japan

edo

modern tokyo

• capital moves from kyoto in 1868

• post tokugawa period where the country was closed off from trade

• japan seen as a beautiful wasteland up until this point, then edo exloded ts

• bigger than paris or new york

• had to accomated fast increase in population

• capital cities as metaphor and mechanism of political authority

  • coldrake’s size politics

• edo citizens very proud

  • new genre of painting emerges c 17th c = “in and around the capital”

  • at the center of edo is the castle, often featured in capital painting

  • you can see castle from anywhere in edo

• edo = shogunate power

• kyoto = imperial power

“in and out of the city scenes” rakuchu-rakugai-zu

• scenes in and around the capital

• famous sites and fesitvals arounf kyoto

kyoto elite society

• imperial family

• old aristocratic clans

• wealthy chonin (merchants)

• edo citizens very proud

  • new genre of painting emerges c 17th c = “in and around the capital”

  • at the center of edo is the castle, often featured in capital painting

  • you can see castle from anywhere in edo

• edo = shogunate power

• kyoto = imperial power

edo castle

• edo citizens very proud

  • new genre of painting emerges c 17th c = “in and around the capital”

  • at the center of edo is the castle, often featured in capital painting

  • you can see castle from anywhere in edo

  • super huge

    • tall walls

    • power, impress, political power in city/empire

    • choreography of power in architecture paintings

    • height is political

  • social layout like a spiral from the city center

  • distinct from kyoto, urban design based on new needs

  • desperation of the shogun

chonin

• townspeople

• common folk

yoshiwara pleasure quarters

• legal red light district

• very dark and terrible

• children sold at a young age

• women exploited

floating world - ukiyo-e

• buddhist term used to descibe the dynamic and fleeting experience of being in a city

• vernacular literature and art created by and for townspeople

• mass produced, colored woodblock prints

• private publishers and designers

• representations of the city’s activities and pleasure

the stars of kabuki theater and the floating world

• women forbidden to perform on kabuki stages

• female impersonators

katsushika hokusai

1760-1849

• 36 views of mount fuji

  • dif seasons, dif angles

• also did the prints of nihonbashi feat the mt

TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTION!

• prussian blue is deepr

• arrives from europe in 1830s, replaces local colors made from indigo + dayflower

ando hiroshige

1797-1858

• born in low ranking samurai family of edo

• professional painter and woodblock designer

ONE HUNDRED VIEWS OF EDO - type of surimono with only 118 prints organized by season, from spring to winter

surimono

• a genre of japanese woodblock print, privately commissioned for special occasions

• sold in smaller quantities - higher value

japonisme

• 1854 - ends seclusion

• 1867 - universal exhibition in paris

• 1872 - theodore duret’s voyage en asie

• 1896 - outamaro et hokusai by edmond de goncourt -

honami koetsu

1558-1637

• family of sword polishers hired by Ashikaga shoguns

• professional workshop - metropolitan elite

• maybe related to sotatsu

• goated at japanese style calligraphy - wayo

• also likes raku ware

  • experimented with dif clays, cracked ceramics, using gold laqcquer to repait hey kintsugi

• multimedia artistttt queen jack of all trades yay

• lacquer and caligraphy

• sotatsu and koetsu meet at takagamine commune and make epic work like the deer scroll in 1615 which combined koetsu’s fire calligraphy work and sotatsu’s epic painting skills

tawayara sotatsu

1570-1640

• biography unknown

• owner of a commercial atelier specializing in yamato-e called tawaraya in kyoto

• known for unique scenes

  • experimented with kano school motifs like the twisting tre

  • from yamato-e to kara-e (ink)

• sotatsu and koetsu meet at takagamine commune and make epic work like the deer scroll in 1615 which combined koetsu’s fire calligraphy work and sotatsu’s epic painting skills

tarashikomi - lit. “dripped in”

• bleeding and blurring of the paint tequnieue

• wet on wet pigments

rinpa

• did korin start it? unsure

• founded by sotatsu and koetsu, brought to prominence by ogata korin

• known for being multimedial

rinpa and kyoto

• market economy

• feeding customers novelty

• by experimenting with new media, they create an active and continually growing market

jyoto has an imperial family

• capturing the aesthetics of the imperical

  • genji, the painted scrolls, yamato-e

ogata korin

1659 - 1716

• family of wealthy textile merchants

• trained in kano workshop

• independent workshop in kyoto and edo

• revival koetsu and sotatsu? the next generation after them to take on multiple medias and experiment

• the rin school - RINPAA

• paintd the “eight-planked bridge at yatsuhashi” in early 18th c

  • tourism, mentioned in the tales of ise

textiles - intermedial approaches

kamisaka sekka

1866-1942

Kamisaka Sekka was an important artistic figure in early twentieth-century Japan. Born in Kyoto to a samurai family, his talents for art and design were recognized early. He eventually allied himself with the traditional Rinpa school of art. He is considered the last great proponent of this artistic tradition.

murakami takashi

b. 1962

• neo-rinpa

• designs on multiple objects and through various mediums

• the superflat - flattened bisual aesthetics

• flattened ideology - no high/low, experimental/commerical

• made references to sotatsu

Tosa Workshop

tosa mitsunobu - 1434-1525

toda mistunori - 1583-1638

tosa mitsuoki - 1617-1691

• established in 15th c. kyoto

• single-family bidnis

• hereditary

• tosa Mitsunobu position of head of the imperial painting bureay

kano workshop

• established by kano masanobu in 1434 (end 1530)

• specialized in kara-e for muromachi shogun and zen temples

  • kara - china

• favorite painters of warlord during momoyama period

• hereditary family worshop with branches in edo and other cities

• active under late 19th century

• active in kyoto and in competition with tosa workshop

kijin

maruyama okyo

eccentric artist 1733-1795

• born into farming family

• trained in kyoto under kano

• responsible for decoration of several buddhist temples

• successful painting teacher

takes inspo from

• buddhist painting

• chinese literati painting and calligraphy

• western naturalism

• yamato-e

• thinking scientifically

  • new age of technologies - camera obscura

soga shohaku

eccentric artist 1730-1781

• trained in kano workshop

takes inspo from

• zen buddhism

• muromachi-period ink painting

ito jakuchu

eccentric artist 1716-1800

• born into family of grocery shop owners

• studied kano painting

• close ties to buddhist masters - decor of important buddhist temples in kyoto

took inspo from:

• yamato-e

• buddhist zen painting

• decorative painting

• woodblock prints

• ancient art

bakumatsu

• end of bafuku, 1854-1867

• end of japan’s isolation

• power struggles between shogun and his allies, samurai clans against shogun, and imperial court

• contrast over control of trade with foreigenrs

• varying visual representations of japan in the mid-19th c

• in japan - wood block prints (dynamic, diverse)

• in the west - colonialism - photography

  • makes japan seem solemn, like untouched territory

boshin war

meihi era - 1868-1912

toyohara chikanobu

1838-1912

• artist

• 1887: a comparison od beautiful women in western hairstyles

  • propoganda

• the meihi emperor, empress, crown prince, and palace ladies

  • emperor in western dress

  • smoke coming out of factories = industrialization

tokyo academy of fine arts

• modeled after european art academies

• curriculum for painting, sculpture, and craft

• nation-building thorugh artistic education

  • antonio fontanesi and vincenzo ragusa - euro advisors for the meiji gov

  • vin allowed women to study arts

• previously you would be sold as a child to workshops, now you can study to persue arts

rokumeikan

• means hall of the crying deer

• guest house for foreign visitors and entertainment hall

• 1883-1941

• desined by josiah condor for minister of foreign affairs

• interior decorated in french style to host parties and formal dinners in french fashion

• foreign guests surprised and unimpressed

the imperial hotel - teikoku hoteru

• architect - yuzuru watanabe

  • 1890

  • destroyed 1923

• studied with condor

Yoga

• western style painting

takahashi yuichi

1828-1894

• enrolled as painting student institute for the study of barbarian texts, established by togukawa shogun in 1856

• 1866: student of british charles wirgman, stationed yokohama

• training in western painting and drawing

• painted the oiran, grand courtesan, 1872

kuroda seiki

1866-1924

• born in high-ranking samurai class

• move to paris in 1884

• 1886 - abandons law practice for paintnig

• 1890 - joins artists colony of grez-sur-loing

• 1896: director of the tokyo acadademy of fine aarts

• official painter of the meiji emperor

• work: morning toilet 1893

  • scandal around the work not for it being a nude, but how the nude was presented

  • not idealized, embedded in the space

  • brings her into reality

• work: wisdom, impression, sentiment

  • awarded at the universal exposition of 1900 in paris

nihonga

• japanese style painting

• modern invention of “japanese” painting

• mineral pigments + paper on silk

• sythesis of historical styles

• western-inspired realism

repackaged globally as “japanese art”

• like: hishida shunso’s widow and orphan, 1895

ernst fenollosa

1853-1907

• harvard university

• 1878: invitation to teach philosophy at imperial university in tokyo

• 1888: director of tokyo imperial museum and tokyo school of fine arts

okakura kakuzo

1862-1910

• pupil of ernest fenollasa

• okakura as the global face of “japaneseness” in europe and us - curator in boston in 1904

• okakura publishes 1906 book of tea which makes japan seem like this timeless yet stagnant image when in reality it is modern

• wore all these really stereotypically japanese garments for his public image - no one had ts on

Bunten - monbusho bijutsu tenrankai

• a new image of japan, domestically

bunten 1907 -

• ministry of education fine art exhibitino

• yearly state-sponsored exhibition showcasing art promoted by the central government and art academies

• 3 weeks

• open to anyone (able to afford a ticket)

• democratization of access and circulation of art

• synthesis of what government thought was best or most influential artists of the time

• no prior collective space to see art

  • accessibility

exposition universelle, paris

1867

• informal presentation of random artifacts and different media

world’s columbian exposition or chicago’s world fair, chicago

1893

• carefully curated project by government officials and art experts including okakura

• the ho-o-den

  • a phoenix hall, decorated with kano school paintings on lake michigan

  • from left to right, heian, tokygawa, and muromachi period houses

• showing japan as “other” “exotic” “distant”

• inside:

  • nihonga paintings

  • ceramics

  • lacquerware

  • textiles

  • metalwork

  • ancient and modern

  • highly selected sample of objects that emphasized continuity and timelessne

MEIJI INCLUDED IN THE PALACE OF FINE ARTS

• special exhibition within the columbian exposition

• most renound art

• japanese sculpture + painting shown alonside EU+USA art

• japan was only one who has an “art”

  • placed it above other non-west countries … equal to the west in art?

  • yoga painters banned from the show - didn’t want that part because it wasn’t “japanese” enough - wanted “history”

Yorozu Testugoro

1883 - 1956

• borned in merchant family, moved to toyko to join circles of independent artists

• 1906 - travel to US

• 1907 - admitted to tokyo academy of fine arts to study under kuroda

• “n*de beauty” 1912 - controvertial graduation work

• active in circle of self-funded artist associations and exhibitions

“UNIVERSALISM” beyond the binary divide between east and west

• modern art is One, not western

• japanese artists actively involved with modern art

• individual expression beyond national categories

kishida ryusei

1891-1929

• student of kuroda

• active in independent art societies, where he is exposed to german expressionism and cubism

• later moves to nihonga

• painter, printmaker, art historian, philospher of the arts

koizumi kishio - 1893-1945

MAVO

inspired by dada - post kano earthquake in sept 1, 1923

• establishd by tomoyoshi murayama

• 1920s in berlin

• inspired by dada and constructivism

• visual and performing arts

• events organized in public spheres

• very little remains from MAVO - the point

• questioned the monetization of art objects

• small assemblages of those who lost belongings - life in the city - like small graves - the ghost of a moga girl

“modern girl'“ MOGA

modern girl

• $exually liberated

• freedom of expression

• urban middle class

• consumer of new fashions

• public visibility

great kano earthquake

september 1, 1923

shibata suiha

1908-?

• biwa concert

• shows agency-less woman recording herself playing the biwa

• woman in an elsewhere recording herself playing military song in heitian courtesan dress

• surveillance, puppet-like figure, control, devoid of presence or agency

• icon of a “glorious” ancient time, but also modern in recording herself

  • part of the war system because people saw her and felt inspired with her song - women singing as motivation

“return to japan”

• empiralist japan, return to traditional values and concealment of the women, behaviour from the men

• 1937

• good wife, wise mother

• the re-educated “modern girl” in ladies’ magazines

“serve the nation through the arts”

• the “return” to order in the visual arts

  • government condemnation for “gaudy” art inadewuate to a “time of emergency”

  • WWII

  • the proposal of new order in japanese art

    • interconnected reform of art education, exhibition, private schools, artists organizations, targeted at silencing dissent of the “japanese race” and its “transcendental” culture

“novelty pattern kimono”

• dressing war

• patterns with depictions of conquest over other countries and imperialism

• propoganda and everday life

• the relationship between modernization and militarization

• militarization and spectacle

Leonard tsuguharu Foujita

1886-1996

• painter and printmaker trained in tokyo

• 1913 moved to paris where he joins the montparnasse group

• 1930s - international success

• his paintings of WWII were so huge and immersive they feel suffocating and like a theatrical performance

Nakamura Hiroshi

1932-

• 1955: sunagawa military base #5

  • us occupation of japan

  • people outrage in pain and fear - confront US soldiers

  • balance of people who are angry and people trying to reform

Kazuo Shiraga

1924-2008

• performance artist

• crawling though mud, shaping environment around him until mud hardens around him

• aritst’s body and its material

• painting can not only depict reality, but allow you to experience relaity

• artist’s body as the tool

• trained in nihonga

• avant-garde circles during wat

• painting with bare feet, suspended from a rope

gutai art association

• established by yoshijara jiro

• loose artist collective organized around self-funded exhibitions, happenings, and collaboration

• gutai journal 1955-1965

• 1955: first gutai exhibition held at ohara kaikan, tokyo

• gu - tool

• tai - body

• NEW WORLD AFTER THE DEVASTATION OF WAR

• gutai happenings organized in public spaces across different cities involving dance, music, performance

Atsuko Tanaka

1932-2005

• electric dress and constraints on the artists body through technology - return to old tradition of bodily restraint and samurai armor

• electric dress - 1956

  • light bulbs, light tubes, electric wire

Tetsuya Ishida

1973-2005

• trained in oil painting and film

• instutional support within and outside japan

• representative of the so-called “lost decade”

• witness of the economic recession and decline of japanese society

• the salary man

  • mundane guy for servitude, no identification, ideal subjecthood in post-war japan

• explores themes od labor in interesting, surrealist ways

• golden child of contemporary art

• lost his mins and life cut short

• a part of the “lost decade”

• large, immersive work

• economic recession

• ishida targets normative look od salary man

• loss of agency

• merging the body and object